How the Dream Center Supports Our Community

Episode 48: Pocket Change Podcast

Summary

Key Takeaways

• The Dream Center provides a safe space for women and their kids.
• They opened their new building at 59 Oil Well Rd. in Jackson in 2023.
• Adopt a Family Program is a way you can help support a family through the Dream Center to provide things they need or want for Christmas.
• Dreams Renewed, featuring country singer Sara Evans, is the Dream Center's annual event and will be on January 18, 2025.

If you're interested in supporting the Dream Center, you can give online anytime or call to find out what donations they need.

To learn more about Leaders Credit Union or how to become a member, visit leaderscu.com.

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Full Transcript

Shea:

Hey, this is Shea.

Carrie:

And this is Carrie.

Shea:

Welcome to the Pocket Change Podcast.

Carrie:

Where you'll learn better ways to spend, save, and invest, and take control of your financial journey.

Shea:

Merry Christmas!

Carrie:

Merry Christmas!

Shea:

So, Carrie, it's the Christmas holiday season. It's also a season of giving. A lot of people are supporting various efforts in the community because it is a time where we give back to our community.

Carrie:

That's right.  We just wrapped up our favorite project of the year, the Leaders With Love project, and we're so excited to have a local nonprofit on our show today.

Shea:

Yeah, showcasing a lot of the good work that nonprofits do, not only around the holidays, but all throughout the year.

Carrie:

Absolutely, let's dive right into it. We're excited to welcome our guest, Gail Gustafson, Executive Director of the Dream Center, to the podcast. Welcome to Pocket Change, Gail.

Gail Gustafson:

Thank you so much for having me.

Carrie:

We're so happy to have you with us today. I just want to go on and ask, what all does the Dream Center provide? What services do you provide for our community?

Gail Gustafson:

The Dream Center is a a transitional housing facility for women and women with children. We house them, clothe them, feed them, help them to find jobs. Just have a lot of classes that teach them computers, financing, physical activity, as well as parenting and overcoming codependency.

Shea:

Tell us a little bit about the background and how the Dream Center started from a dream and is now what it is today.

Gail Gustafson:

The dream of the Dream Center was Pastor Val Trace from Jackson Family Worship Center. They were in the process of opening the old regional hospital building, and then Rita and Katrina hit. So they just started taking families and individuals that had lost their homes from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, from those storms. They came up and stayed, and the community just dove in and helped feed them and clothe them. Eventually, everybody started getting on their feet. They started working on their houses again. The insurance companies paid off, and they were able to go back to where they came from.

Shea:

How did it expand from that?

Gail Gustafson:

Well, then they started just allowing the people that were homeless in our community to stay there. It just became men, women, children, families, a place to live and get on your feet.

Shea:

You mentioned the new building that you all moved into. Tell us a little bit about that.

Gail Gustafson:

Well, it's an incredible building. It's 26,000 square foot. We can house 80 to 100 women and children. We're now having children. Each family has because each family has their own room. We have a beautiful commercial kitchen. We're able to hold events in our dining area for other folks in the community. So that's just... It's wonderful.

Carrie:

It's a beautiful building.

Gail Gustafson:

It is. It's absolutely gorgeous. So many donations were made, from toilets to bricks. I mean, just an amazing place.

Carrie:

So what is the goal of the Dream Center?

Gail Gustafson:

The goal of the Dream Center is to teach these women how to become self-sufficient in every aspect of their life, financially, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Shea:

Why should the community be involved and support the Dream Center?

Gail Gustafson:

Well, because we're taking people that are homeless and living off a system, and they are becoming a home owners and taxpayers, and they're giving back to the community. They're no longer a burden for the community, but they are becoming a part of the community and giving back to the community.

Shea:

Powerful to have not only the community that supporting them as they're in this time of transition and growth, but then they become part of that again and can continue to give back and even support the Dream Center, I'm sure.

Gail Gustafson:

They do. They all come back to every event and serve, and they give to the Dream Center. It's amazing. The kids now, or the kids when we first started, they're coming back and helping. They're grown. They're starting families of their own, and they're still grateful for the transition of their family and what it did for their family. I'll just tell you about one of our success stories. I won't mention her name, but she was a three-time felon, had lost all of her children. She came to the Dream Center right during COVID when it was really going strong. She had a brand new baby, three weeks old. I told her, "I'm not taking anybody. We're fixing to shut down for COVID." God just said, "Go ahead and take her," because he does that to me a lot. I took her and we took her to... we were staying in the houses at the time, and I took her to the house. She got to the room and she just started crying because she hadn't had a bed since she was 18 years old. She was very angry, which I can understand the trauma that she had experienced in her life.

Gail Gustafson:

She came along. The law office called me and said that their receptionist was going to be out. Did I have somebody to fill in? I said, "Oh, yeah," and of course, this three-time felon; sent her over there. Listen, these ladies are so smart, and they have so many talents, and they just haven't had the opportunity to use them. Well, she blew these lawyers away with her computer skills, with just the way she handled herself. She was going before judges that she had gone before in her other life, you might say. Now God is restoring her children back to her. It's just amazing. Now she's a homeowner. Thanks to working with another nonprofit in the community, she's a homeowner and working and giving back.

Carrie:

That's such a beautiful story.

Gail Gustafson:

It's a Cinderella story.

Carrie:

Mm-hmm.

Shea:

You didn't mention this yet, but tell us, approximately, how many families or women has the Dream Center helped?

Gail Gustafson:

Probably over 5,000 individuals.

Shea:

That's a huge impact on our region.

Carrie:

We're so blessed to have you guys in our community. Speaking of giving back, so we just wrapped up our Leaders with Love project that we do every year.

Gail Gustafson:

It's a great project.

Carrie:

Thank you. We're proud of it, but we're always happy to support the Dream Center. Could you tell us a little bit about what impact that has had for you guys?

Gail Gustafson:

Well, it's always incredible when a group of people come together. Diapers are expensive. Laundry soap is expensive. When you're... I mean, just for your house, so you multiply that time 60 and 70 people I mean, that's a huge burden that's taken away from us that we're supplying, and then somebody else is filling in in that spot. That just is a big help.

Carrie:

We're glad to hear that.

Shea:

For our listeners who are thinking about this season of giving and want to give back, what are some ways that individuals and groups, churches, anyone can support the Dream Center?

Gail Gustafson:

Well, you can always support the Dream Center. There's no donation too small, no donation too big. We want to grow. We want a playground out back. We want a half-court gymnasium for these kids during the wintertime to be able to go and have activities still. We're running about 35 children right now, and when it rains and they're all stuck inside, it's crazy. Financial giving, Christmas is coming up. You don't have to think about toys necessarily. Christmas can be diapers, Christmas can be laundry soap, cleaning products, toilet paper. I mean, multiply the toilet paper you use at your house times about 60 or 70. That's a big impact. Then we also have adopt a family at Christmas time where you adopt the whole family. We give you a list of the mother's name, the children's names, their ages, their shirt size, pants size, shoes size, and something that they would like for Christmas. Then you wrap them individually, and then you put them all in one big bag together, and that family is taken care of for Christmas. It's not always about toys. I've had kids ask me for underwear and socks for Christmas. The important stuff.

Shea:

The essentials, necessities. People can give online at your website?

Gail Gustafson:

Oh, absolutely.

Shea:

They can call you up.

Gail Gustafson:

They can call me up. They can come by. We love giving tours in our new facility. I don't think I give a tour without tears flooring from my eyes because I'm so grateful for what the community has done. They've come together and just... It's amazing. Our new facility is amazing, and that's why we are so willing to share with the community and just come by and take a tour.

Carrie:

We haven't mentioned this yet, but we're so grateful for your giving heart. Can Can anyone just donate all throughout the year, or are there certain times that you take donations? Oh no, we take donations 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For those listening, just know it doesn't have to be at Christmas time.

Gail Gustafson:

Now, sometimes we have to limit the clothes and shoes and stuff like that, donations, because we just don't have space for them, but all you have to do is call and we'll let you know if we're taking those kinds of things.

Shea:

Then there's another way to support the Dream Center coming up soon. You got an annual event. I think it's the 15th year. Is that right?

Gail Gustafson:

It is. We've always called it the Night in the Caribbean, but this year is our 15th year. We rebranded, thanks to Adelsberger Marketing. Give them a plug because they're so incredible. We rebranded, now we're Dreams Renewed, which I think fits so well because we are renewing dreams. I mean, that is our motto, rebuilding lives, restoring hope, renewing dreams. This year we have Ms. Sarah Evans, the country singer, coming. So there's tables available, balcony seats available. Coyote Blues is going to do the dinner. We're going to have a live and sign an auction. It's going to be a great event. Wonderful. We love to have everybody out there.

Carrie:

I've seen her in concert. She is so talented. That will be quite a treat.

Gail Gustafson:

Yes. She's got a lot of songs out there.

Shea:

That's when? Coming up in January.

Gail Gustafson:

January the 18th at the Civic Center.

Shea:

At the Civic Center in downtown Jackson. Get your tickets, get a table, and join the Dream Center for Dreams Renewed with Sara Evans. That's a great way to support you all.  Since this is a financial podcast, we did want to ask, what is some of the best financial advice you've ever been given?

Gail Gustafson:

Well, I always go back to the Bible, and you can't out give God. You can't out give God. I've learned that in my personal life, and I've seen it in other people's lives over and over and over.

Shea:

Being generous is. It's never going to take you in the wrong direction. That's right.

Carrie:

Okay, so I have one last question for you. If you were to find some extra change in your pocket, what would you spend it on?

Gail Gustafson:

I wouldn't spend it. We have a jug, a big old water jug for the kids. The kids and I, we all put our change in there. When I have change, the kids get to go put it in there, and we save that for the summertime, and we do an activity with that money.

Carrie:

That sounds perfect.

Shea:

So another way to support the Dream Center. If anyone's got spare change, just swing by there and drop it in there.

Gail Gustafson:

Fill that jug up.

Carrie:

That's wonderful.

Shea:

Bring your pocket change up.

Carrie:

Well, thank you, Gail, so much for being with us today. We appreciate all that you do in our community.

Gail Gustafson:

Thank you all for having me. I appreciate you all.